Tuesday, January 28, 2020

heading to the vegas for some jamz

okay, onto lighter topics. i'm still really upset, but i've gotta shift to happier thoughts. and there were lots of happy things last weekend to share, so there you go.

it was jamz nationals weekend in las vegas, and with the bean's team scheduled to perform on friday night we headed out on thursday afternoon to get checked in and settled for the hustle and bustle that always goes along with comp weekends. it just so happened to be parent-teacher conference time, which had the bean at school for just a half day on thursday and off on friday. couldn't have worked out any better than that, yeah?

of course, a stop at eddie world is a requirement on any road trip to vegas.

and of course, i fell asleep pretty hard about halfway through the drive. you know i can't be in a moving vehicle without passing out at some point. and when i finally came to, we were here:

we were keeping a pretty fun surprise from the bean - MIL was in town to help her brother with some things, but because he lives about an hour and a half away she'd been staying in a hotel nearby instead of with us like she usually does. anyway, she wasn't able to wrap things up in time for us to pick her up on the way but had managed to book a flight that would get her to vegas by 7pm. we'd decided to put the two of them in the room we had reserved at the orleans - not our favorite spot in vegas, but the most convenient for jamz weekend - while we booked a room for us at the nearby palms. we headed to the orleans first to get checked in and take bags into the room. and because it was thursday, the line at the registration counter was practically non-existent.

once we got everything settled in there, we went back downstairs to hop into the car and drive over to the palms and check in. we found that our friends were parked right next to us:

when we pulled into the palms, the bean took one look and was all "WHAT this hotel is so much nicer, can't we all just stay here??" heh.

apparently, billy idol is back?

the room itself was pretty nice. a lot brighter than the orleans, for sure.

by then it was time to head to the airport and pick up MIL, who was really excited to be able to come and spend some time with us and see the bean perform at competition. the hub had let it slip just a few hours earlier, so the bean already knew she was coming but was no less stoked to be with her beloved grandma. and everyone was hungry, so we headed over to our favorite spot for some dinner - eataly, at the park MGM.

we dropped them off at the orleans afterwards, because they were both a little tired (although i also think they just wanted to have some bonding time together). the hub and i headed over to the fashion show mall to hang out at the davidoff cigar lounge for a couple of hours. the hub is a regular there, and the server recognized us both and welcomed us with smiles and hugs as we found a great spot on the patio. we relaxed there for a while, as the hub enjoyed his cigar and i had a margarita, and then we returned to the palms to play some slots before going back upstairs and passing out cold.